Oh look new pin post.
I shut down commissions because I'm tired and I've been doing it for ten years and I'm tired. I really want to do my own art at the moment so.
Hi kiddos, I'm Ceth, a 30-something artist from Sydney, Australia. (Look I'm violently Australian and I don't care if that's weird to anyone) I mostly paint TES art, mostly this very not vanilla Teldryn Sero design. I write fic to go with it fun.
Atm I'm making a career change from archaeologist to teaching (shit got a bit dangerous, if you wanna hear about why that might be dm is open. I talk like an idiot so done worry about it).
Currently feral for Teldryn Sero, Morrowind in general, Ashlander culture I'm making up, Hilltop Hoods and a fuck tonne of Mongolian Folk Metal.
Danger!Josh is the hyperspecific Teldryn Sero tag for the above design and the feral attitude I write him with (My boy's probably a lad though).
anyway linkage:
Arty insta
The writings and scrawlings
Art blog i forget about
Tes blog for the fics
She looked up as she heard her name. One of the atronachs was approaching her, a fiery arm held out towards her as it crossed the ice. A group of mer were following behind it, led by a mer clad in black chitin that she knew to be Geldis. The second atronach was following closely behind the party. It was all too synchronised for her liking. She noticed that one of the Ashlanders was dragging along what appeared to be an Argonian with an old scarf he had wrapped around his neck. His hands were bound.
She could not find Teldryn amongst them, and she felt an odd pang in her gut over it as she watched them. Really, she was probably still in shock… which was probably why she hadn’t noticed the slowly cracking ice just ahead of her, nor the fact that the fire that surrounded the lead atronach had slowly started to dissipate. It wasn’t until a tall figure clad in beige chitin and orange fabrics emerged from the flames that it clicked.
“You asshole!”
Serious Mistakes: Chapter 20.
Ah, after three months of work, I've finally managed to finish this one. Have my take of Teldryn Sero's Chitin Armour but with less um... "A well-placed blow to the chest will kill him" flavour.
Coverage, The vanilly armour has no chest coverage. Like what's it for? Clearly not to protect your upper vitals.
So I decided to try and fic it. Shells take a long time to shade... Incidentally, I also decided that I'd take a wack at "how does he fit his ears under that helmet?" The solution is that he ties them back with a scarf. He strikes me as a hairband guy.
Obviously, this isn't all the art I've produced this year, but it is all of my renders. They tend to take one to two months on average, particularly those that have a lot of detail and components, which I've been drawn to depicting a lot this year.
I've also really gotten Joshi's look down pat over the course of the year - settled on his bone structure, been designing the shit out of his clothes. He's looking like a guy!
Anyway, here's to more art next year. I have these works planned as renders so far.
Josh about to enter Kogoruhn.
Plan on merging these two drawings and setting it in the Maar Gan market.
Another addition to the Khan portraits.
Look, i'm just really inspired by this one- I can see it finished, so i'll probably do this one next, then do his Kogoruhn armour.
He had taken the name that warrior had given him too, Yeshua the Silent. Something he had given Teldryn in jest, but he didn’t mind it. When Teldryn had asked him why he chose that name, writing his queries in the sand as he was coming out of his skooma withdrawal the old warrior just shrugged and told him it was ‘the first name that popped into his head.’ When he asked him why not a Dunmeri name? He said that Teldryn was the first one he’d ever met. So naturally, he didn’t know any Dunmeri names.
Ashkhan Ilaba'andul-Sul Erra of the Ahemmusa and the Urshilaku.
The Dunmeri script-
I will not pray for that which I've lost
When my heart springs forth
From your soil, like a seed,
And blossoms anew beneath tomorrow's sun.
So I finally managed to finish this. A good what? Two months? Roughly two months... These pieces simply take a lot of time, but the end result is worth it imo.
So Erra's Khan portrait is done. You might notice that Erra's throwing down two clan names... and there's a reason for that. I have written a short biography of Erra's life for Sleepers Awake which you can find -> here which explains why Erra gets these titles.
Lines <3
So I finally finished it. A Timurid inspired portrait of Josh as the Great Khan of the Ashlands. This should take place after he's dominated all four Ashlander Tribes but not before he starts his campaign on the Great Houses.
He's wearing mostly ceremonial garb, stuff the Ashkhans usually wear in order to take audience and officiate ceremony that is not expected to end in battle.
Playing around with Joshi's hivemind connection thing. This is meant to be set after he and Erra learn that Josh can't get within 100 meters of the Ghostfence.
I've never done one of these before but this is the first time i've ever had enough finished work that wasn't commissions to show. Unfortunately for everyone it's all pictures of Josh so...
January
(technically I finished this on December 30 but it's close enough) This is me trying to finalise Josh's Serious Mistakes design. I'm considering making his hair a bit longer for SM part 2.
February/March
The Arkanis piece. I was trying to tap into his Ash Ghoul/ Ascended side. I'm planing on doing a second version of this. I recommend zooming in on his right eye, it's a galaxy. Note that he has gold teeth.
April/May
Another stab at 4E Josh. This was intended to be a redo of my first solo Teldryn Sero work but this time with my own twists on the character/ totally Joshified.
June/July
Another Arkanis piece. This comes from a scene in one of my fics. Josh is exploring Kogoruhn and must contend with what he finds there. Scenes take a really long time to paint and this took about two months to complete.
August
I wanted to paint Josh around the time where he's just recovering from Corprus Disease, so his scars are quite fresh and the boi's exhausted. It was just a brilliant reference and worked perfectly for this version of him.
September
Another 4E Josh holding one of the amulets Erra had made him long ago. It's broken and the enchantment is gone but he is very sentimental. You might notice I also have the same amulet in the Arkanis piece. It's a theme.
October/November
It's the bois! It's the bois after their marriage ceremony. They now have matching tattoos. I free-handed the shit out of that background and i'm pretty happy with it. Also Hello Erra!
December
Hey I finished this yesterday! Decided Josh needed his pre-corprus look painted and I really liked how the line drawing of this came out. Free-handed the background again and I think it turned out ok. Note: His wrist is broken from the Vivec City 1 through to the end of the Urshilaku 1 arc.
Or Josh No! Josh stop! Josh use your brain....you know he won't.
And he's done. We have one with text and one without because why not. Joshi gets to spend two chapters in his favourite place- Dwemeri ruins filled with lava. Though seriously, his ass loves that shit!
I have finished your Christmas Dunmer. It's in my q'd posts. You're not getting it until Christmas, but I need you to suffer in anticipation because reasons. This is not to pressure you to embrace the (hilarious and open ended) chaos I somehow got to requesting from you in return any more than is reasonable or anything. This is me bragging that I went a small amount of time without hating what I did. I am very smug right now that something I did more than 24 hours ago doesn't make me want to smash my head into a wall. Very, very smug about that fact. And I want you to be excited about it too.
Jokes on you, I love anticipation!!!!
Also, i'm really, really happy that you loved what you made, because I remember the first time I finally started liking my finished work for longer than the first 24 hours and it was incredible.
It made me want to keep creating. Hells yeah!!!
The Nerevarine and his Urshilaku Shield Companion post a ghost bonding ritual.
Or they get married
This was a lot of work and I'm really happy with how it came out. I've finalised a few points in Erra's design now. Mostly because I decided he needed an undercut for reasons.
Boys got matching tattoos.
He heard Geldis say something as he reached for his temple, his fingers coming into contact with something sticky covering the side of his face. Blood? It was the most likely explanation. He held his fingers in front of him, a red, semi-dried substance smeared across his painted fingertips.
So, something had hit him, then?
His eyes locked with something blue and sparkling. A trinket that he had parted with long ago.
“Tel, can you tell me what it is I’m holding?”
He recognised the glass amulet Erra had given him before he ventured into Kogoruhn that first time, centuries ago. He winced as he leaned forward, taking it from Geldis’ hand. His husband had made a matching set of enchanted amulets, or ubara in Ashland, with the hope that the enchantments he had folded into the glasswork would be enough to protect him from the ash creatures that dwelled within. He’d lost one almost as soon as he entered the citadel and the second he figured he probably broke at some point between his meeting with that first Ascended and when he’d woken up face-to-face with one of the Sharmat’s generals. He had kept it for all these years for the sentimentality. Anything that reminded him of the reason he used to breathe.
He had left it with Brunwulf Free-Winter as proof of his death for those who’d come after him. The thing was stained with his blood, the ironwork permanently blackened by a wound to his abdomen that almost spelt his end. It was all he had at the time that he could part with, and he’d regretted it ever since.
“Ubara,” he swallowed, struggling to find his words as he ran the glass and iron beads through his fingers, “Gift from Kiang for protection.”
Geldis smiled before looking away from him and calling across the cavern, “He’s back!”
And we've finished this one- yay! The timeline idea is that it's Joshi dealing with everything in the months immediately post corprus as he hides out from the Blades in Suran.
As druhad edur bahrdruhad.
The sleeper is awake.
Words familiar, sentences he’d seen scrawled in his own blood before him dozens of times. Phrases on his tongue, itching at his fingertips. He brushed back some of the dust. Obsessively tracing the lettering with his fingertips. Whispering the phrase over and over. A mantra. A sharp sensation against his palm.
The ink was fresh, the words restored. He whispered them to himself as he continued, having at some point dropped his other gauntlet and glove in the ash behind him. His pack was discarded alongside them. Contents spilled across the chamber. His vision began to tunnel as he continued to trace circles in the dust.
“He speaks to us through our waking dreams,” he heard himself chant. His vision started to blur and distort. He began to feel lightheaded. His palm stung and a metallic scent hung in the air, sharp as he traced another circle in the dust. Scarlet over burgundy. Every word renewed. The pounding in his head began to intensify as the screaming became deafening. Submit and he will show you mercy.
“ – and the dust is blown away.”
Arkanis
Finally finished this scene from a fic I did in October. I keep coming back to Kogoruhn and corprus fuckery as a concept. Have Joshi in distress.
Oh I managed to draw him in (almost) full armour- yay!
Some random notes on Joshi's design because I can.
Or I talk about accent colours on discord and paste it here. This is a long post that contains nudes, however it is placed under a cut with a disclaimer.
Joshi's main colours are black, beige and vermillion. I tend to describe his magicka aura as also being an orangy-red as well. Vermillion is his accent colour design wise.
The vast majority of his clothing is either black or neutral-toned, so that makes the accent colour pop.
So whilst that second one is an outdated design, it's using the same basic idea. Vermillion accents on neutral coloured clothing.
He adds elements of chitin plate as parts break or become extinct. So the armour has a large beige component by 4E199.
But I haven't done a fully finished version of him in full armour just yet. It's essentially this Netch leather set that I've modified.
I use a lot of steppe cultural influences in his costumes, there's fun flippy toes from his gutals.
One day I'll finish the flats on these but this is his mid-game Morrowind armour, has a lot of ashlander elements to it for wandering through the blight infested areas.
It's mostly dark chitin plate and boiled netch leather. He's technically wearing a chitin helmet but it's wrapped in a plain linen wrap with a vermillion accent.
Both line arts are the same armour set in various stages of disrepair as he fights his way through Kogoruhn. Pants are a faded olive green, shirt is the same plain linen that wraps his helmet and the netch leather is a darkish grey purple. Salk chitin is used for his plate. Scarf and sash are vermillion.
Now for some talk on the secondary colour that I use for his nudes, under the cut due to blatant nudity.
Josh does have a secondary accent colour, which is violet. Mostly it's emphasised when I'm painting him without clothes, but his face tats dictate the colour of his Morag Tong tat (violet) and his prisoner serial number dictates the colour of his marriage tattoo (black).
So whilst his main accent colour is still surrounding him, and I've used it again in his lounge robe in the sfw piece. The nude shows the secondary colour is a dusty violet.
The purple I've chosen below is because it ties him to the Blighted hive mind, which is always presented as ash skin and darkness until one reaches Aetherius. (or becoming an Ascended).
Below I'm pulling magenta for an accent since it's a medium between the two main colours (as suggested by @naturalbornlosers who hit the nail on the head). I use the colour as his ash goggle lens tint too.
Partially a redo of an older work and partially just a study. I wanted to repaint my fist depiction of Teldryn but with more of the design choices that I've made for his 4E look over the last year. Um...enjoy I guess.
